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Oldham rape victim calls for inquiry

Rape victim calls on David Cameron to launch a parliamentary inquiry over child exploitation. Photo: ITV

A woman who was raped in Oldham has waived her right to anonymity to call on David Cameron to launch a parliamentary inquiry over child exploitation.

18 year old Samantha Roberts, wants to highlight the issue in the wake of the recent court case in which eight Pakistani men and one Afghan received jail sentences of between four and 19 years for a range of sexual offences against five white girls in Rochdale.

She was picked up in a car in Oldham at the age of 12 by 39-year-old Shakil Chowdhury, and driven to a house where he and three other Asian men raped her. Chowdhury was jailed for six years in October 2007 and has since been released but her other attackers have not been caught, reported the Oldham Chronicle.

Samantha said: "It's ridiculous that it has to take five girls, as in this case, for people to take notice.

"I've been dealing with it for six years. I think it needed to be blown up in the media and across the country to get more people talking about it and the sentencing changed."

She said the 19-year sentence given at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month to a 59-year-old man - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was "a good sentence". "I'm just gutted the same didn't happen with my case," she said. "People have now realised that things like this do go on in places like Oldham and Rochdale. There are cultural problems."

She has written a letter to the Prime Minister to ask to him to investigate the issue and said she wanted to meet him in person.